Abstract:

Since 2004, Dr. Lucy Ozarin has volunteered at the History Division of the National Library of Medicine where she researches and writes biographies of notable American psychiatrists. Long before her service as a medical historian, Dr. Ozarin earned a living as a psychiatrist. Ozarin graduated from New York University and earned her MD from New York Medical College in 1937. She began a lifetime interest in psychiatry and neurology during her residency at Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla, NY (1939-1940), and at Gowanda State Hospital in Collins, NY(1940-1943). Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry (1945), Ozarin later earned an MPH from Harvard University School of Public Health (1961). 

From 1943 to 1946, Ozarin served in the Navy where she earned the distinction of being one of the first women psychiatrists commissioned in the Navy (and only one of seven women Navy psychiatrists in World War II). During the war, Dr. Ozarin served at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), Bethesda, MD, Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, and Hunter College (AKA, “USS Hunter”) the primary training facility for over 95,000 Navy and Coast Guard women reservists (WAVES and SPARS, respectively). 

At the time of this interview Dr. Ozarin was 98 years old.

Key Topics:

George Raines, Head of Psychiatry at National Naval Medical Center

Gowanda State Hospital, Collins, NY

Hunter College (AKA, “USS Hunter”), Bronx, NY

James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy/Secretary of Defense

National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), Bethesda, MD

Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, NC

U.S. Public Health Service

WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services)